Origin Notes and History:

Translation: "having oolachen". The name has also been spelled dzawadi and Tsawadi. This is a place of origin and ancient village site, supporting a fishery, clover gardens, and the harvesting of many other resources.

Source: Museum at Campbell River (spring 2001)

Labelled "Tsauwati Village" on British Admiralty Chart 581, 1865, with the following notation: "A large number of Natives assemble at Tsauwati Village to make fish oil during the summer months."

Tsawadi is the primary oolachen fishery in Kwakwaka'wakw territory. The Tenaktak, in whose ancestral territories the fishery is located, permitted nine other Kwakwaka'wakw nations to fish at this location. Fishing settlements belonging to these various nations were scattered along the banks of the Klinaklini River. Chief Humseet, in his 1914 testimony to the McKenna-McBride Commission outlined the Tenaktak claim for Tsawadi as including the entire Klinaklini River. "Tswawadi" is also used as the name for Knight Inlet.